SALES PROCESS
Which steps do I need to take in order to ensure a consistent and efficient sales approach? How can I adapt the sales processes to increase sales performance?

In one form or another, these are questions every professional sales manager ponders regularly. As Circle Training sales trainers and consultants, we frequently got confronted with those questions which are the underlying issues behind every attempt to train sales people. Investing in training and developing your sales people is always a good idea. But sometimes it isn’t the entire solution for your organization. Often, enormous improvements in sales productivity can be achieved by fine-tuning the structure of your sales organization.

The structure is the total sum of all the policies, guidelines, procedures and tools your company uses in its sales effort. It's everything about how your company sells, other than the people themselves. Circle Training can help you to sharpen those structures.

Here is a list of the some major components you might need to consider for a typical sales structure and a fruitful implementation of a powerful sales strategy:
  • Sales process design
  • Sales tools
  • Information and reporting systems
  • Sales automation systems
  • Sales management and coaching practices
  • Sales administration/support
  • Job descriptions for salespeople
  • Sales compensation plan
  • Definition of approach of different customer segments
  • Definition of specific sales behaviours
  • Processes for continuous development of salespeople
If you want to make measurable changes in the productivity of your sales team, refine your sales structure. Here's how to go about it:

OUR APPROACH
Four Steps to sharpen your Sales Structure:
  • Step one: Identify and clarify your current structure
    Since much of the sales structure is composed of unspoken rules and habits, you may not even be aware of it. So, you need to identify and clarify exactly what rules and procedures your salespeople operate within.
  • Step two: Analyze the impact of the existing structure to your sales performance
    Look at each piece of the sales structure and check: "What impact does this have on the productivity of our sales efforts?"
  • Step three: Define and prioritize changes to your sales structure
    If you've never looked at the structure before, you may discover that you have unearthed a huge task, with an overwhelming number of practices, procedures and rules that need to be changed. Best to prioritize and start with those that will make the biggest difference first.
  • Step four: Make changes as necessary
    Once the change has been defined, it is necessary to implement it in your sales organization. You need to enable your sales managers / team leaders to be in the position to implement the change in their teams and ensure a consistent, measurable approach.
After having adapted the sales structure, we often work with sales managers to enable them to carry the change into your organization prior to teaching your sales force successful sales behaviors. Please take a look at High Performance Sales Coaching to read how we do this.